Heilman comber.



G. III. WIIIIIII.

HEILMAN COMBER. APPLICATION FILED MAY 20. Isls.

Patented May 8,1917.

GEORGE M. WHITIN, OF WHITINSVILLE, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO THE WHITIN MACHINE WORKS, OF WHITINSVILLE, MASSACHUSETTS, j CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

Specification of Letters Patent,

HEILMAN COMBER.

Application led May 20, 1913. Serial No. 768,712.

To all Awhom t may concern Be it known that I, GEORGE M. VVHITIN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Whitinsville, in the county of Vorcester and State of Massachusetts, have invented the following described new and useful lmprovements in Heilman Combers.

This is an improvement in the manufacture of sliver or yarn and particularly sliver or yarn from waste or short staple cotton of say one inch in length or undef. Cottonof this grade is generally worked into roving by the same process as the better grades except that it is seldom if ever combed. The improvement that would result from regularly combing staple of this shortness 1s not enough to offset the shrinkage in valueit would undergo by loss of fiber inthe form of waste, which is excessive with short stock. Itis a common practice, however, to improve this kind of cotton by semi-combing` it.- Semi-combing is done on Heilman combers such as universally used by cotton manufacturers, by adjusting the settings of the parts in such manner as to prevent the comb needles from having full play on the fiber, thereby reducing the normal combing effect to an extent that is sufficient only to improve the appearance somewhat, but without throwing down an excessive or uneconomical percentage of fiber with the noil. By this method, which is one well understood in the art, it is possible to give the cotton yarn suiiicient lluster and suiiicient additional strength tob e an appreciable improvement over carded, or even double-carded, yarn from cotton of the same grade, and at the same time keep the waste production so low as to permit of conducting the method with profit. Thus, for semi-combing, the lower nipper jaw is set off from lthe path of the rotary comb so that the tuft projects only a portion of the usual distance into the comb teeth; the `depth, of penetration of the top comb into the tuft is reduced, and-frequently the angle of the top comb teeth with reference to the direction of movement of the tuft is diminished, all of whichchanges decrease the waste production for `obvious reasons, and of course also decrease the eiiiciency and luster-giving effect of the process. In some cases it is customary for the normal rotary comb and top comb to be substituted by others having coarser teeth, for the same purpose and with the same effect. Furthercan.

more, for semi-combing, it is necessary to shorten they distance from the feed-rolls to the detaching rolls, as well as the distance from the detaching rolls to the closed nipper jaws because `this also tends to decrease the number of fibers that pass off to the waste The closer nip thus obtained permits the detaching roll to seize the projecting end of the tuft farther toward the middle and thus to draw through fibers which might otherwise be caught by the top comb. Although each of the foregoing changes is very slight asrespects actual change of position or distance, andy must be very carefully made, the effect on the action of the general organization is of course very considerable, a few hundredths 4of an inch in the penetration of the top comb, for instance, serving to halve the amount of waste it takes out of the stock, as of course is well known to combers.

My invention provides a new way for working the kind of cotton referred to, which gives the yarn a substantial improvement in appearance and luster and an equal vor better tensile strength with the production of even less waste than heretofore and without the trouble and inconvenience of making the very minute adjustments above referred to. The new method thus enables the cotton manufacturer to convert his short stock into higher grade product and at less cost than he could'do by semi-combing and of course enables him to sell such product at a correspondingly enhanced price.

`I accomplish this object by first carding the short staple sliver in the usual way, a single carding being sufficient and the carded sliver being formed into a lap roll such as customary to be supplied to the comber. I then subject the sliver in such a roll to a modified combing action by which only one end portion of each fiber is combed or cleaned by engagement with comb teeth, the opposite ends of each ber being left substantially untouched and in this carded condition. The fibers as thus treated are pieced according to the usual 'Heilman process, to form a sliver which is thereafter handled substantially the same as other combed sliver. A combing machine constructed to operate on the plan hereinafter explained may be used to carry on the method, but it can be performed on other kinds of machines. Most conveniently and preferably I comb the head ends of the bers or those which are foremost in the passage of the cotton through the machine and this combing is done entirely by a rotary comb, the tuft being held the meantime very firmly in nipper j aws so that only the dirt and uselessly short fiber are combed out. Contrary to the practice in semi-combing, the nippers project the tuft to the greatest possible depth into the rotary comb needles, so that as many fibers as possible will be subjected to the action of all of the comb teeth. After its forward end is thus straightened and cleaned, the tuft is detached from the body of the lap and pieced in the usual manner, but the tail ends of each tuft receive no combing action and no treatment whatever beyond what they get from being pulled away from between other fibers still held in the body of the lap. This gives a certain draft or straightening effect but is not accompanied by loss of fiber.

I have found that the lustrous appearance which is the familiar characteristic of combed yarn, comes mostly from the polishing the fibers receive from the passage of the needles through them and the least from the cleansing they undergo by the removal of neps and leaf. Therefore by thoroughly polishing approximately one-half of each fiber and allowing the other half to remain as it was originally, except for the draft straightening just mentioned, I am able to gain an average luster in the yarn which eX- ceeds that which can be 'produced by only partially and inefliciently combing the full length of each tuft or fiber according to the present practice of semi-combing. I also gain some improvement in the breaking strength, and these advantages are readily and easily obtained with far less waste of fiber than is possible with the present semicombing practice, as pointed out below. Contrary to the semi-combing method, I prefer to use fine needles on the rotary comb cylinder and as many rows of such needles as it will carry, and I prefer also to operate the feed rolls so that the fibers in each tuft shall be subjected to the action of the rotary comb more than once; that is to say, so that after detachment some of the projecting bers will be still left projecting so as to be encountered a second time by the rotary comb; thus I give the forward portions of each fiber the greatest amount of polishing, with the lowest possible production of waste, because the rotary comb can remove from the tuft only the dirt and such very short fibers as are not long enough to be held by the firmly pressed nippers. In practice the amount thus removed varies from about 2% to or 5%, depending upon the character of the stock, a very short and dirty stock giving up not more than 5% and the cleaner grades correspondingly less. This of course is less than half the percentage of waste which the semicomber must remove in gaining the luster sought for.

While these' and other advantages will now perhaps be apparent to the combing expert from what has been said, I would further mention that the new method allows of a construction of comber having a very short and unobstructed passage from the feed rolls to the detaching roll, much shorter, in fact, than would be possible if the tail ends of the tuft were also to be combed, as in the common machine, and not only does this change work to improve the character of the piecing, but it makes it possible for piecing to be effected on stock of shorter length than heretofore, which fact I would particularly emphasize inasmuch as the benefits of the semi-combing process are thereby extended in a practical manner to cotton stock averaging -ginch or even less, and this, as is well known to those skilled in the art, has never been practically accomplished before.

In the accompanying drawings I have shown one form of l-Ieilman type comber as an illustration of a suitable apparatus for carrying out the process above described. The said process, however, is not peculiar to this particular machine, as already stated, and can be carried out on apparatus of various structural characteristics.

Figure l of the drawings represents a section view of the essential parts of a comber constructed to carry out this invention;

Fig. 2 being a similar section on a smaller scale through one of the combing heads of such a machine. j

rIhe various driving and controlling mechanism for the parts shown are omitted for brevitys sake and because from the description of functions given below and the analogy to the regular Heilman, any person skilled in this art can make and onstruct the same.

The cotton lap roll is placed on the corru gated wooden lap rolls l, which are driven from the end of the machine and fed thence over the sliver plate 2 to the feed rolls 3, 4, and thence projected into the nipper jaws 5 and 6, when the latter are opened. The lower feed roll l is driven intermittently or continuously, as preferred, and both rolls are set close to the upper nipper jaw, the upper roll being held by arms 31 and firmly pressed against the lower roll by means of springs. The lower nipper `jaw is carried on the nipper frame 7, which is adjustably mounted on the main frame by means not shown in the drawings, so that its nipping edge will be close to the path of the needle j half-lap 8, as above described, and also so that it can be adjusted toward and from the detaching roll 9. The upper jaw or nipperknife is fulcrumed upon the nipper frame so as to swing on the axis l0, and is opened and against the under side of the closed by means of cam-operated connecting rods 11. The meeting portions of the ltwo jaws are fashioned in such manner as to project the tuft downwardly and at a point slightly in rear of the vertical plane (a) of the cylinder axis, so that thereby substantially the whole of such tuft is encountered at the most favorable angle by the successiverows of half-lap needles 8. The detaching segment 12 cooperates with the detaching roll 9, in the usual manner, being beveled on its forward margin so as to engage the said roll with the least shock and jar. The roll 9 is mounted on stationary bracket supports 91 at its ends, as usual, being pressed thereon and on the lower roll 13 by the stirrup 20. In this position it will engage the segment but escape contact with the needle half-lap 8, the points of which are I about g1g of an inch lower on the cylinder than the surface of the segment. The projecting tuft is raised by the segment as the nippers open and is then nipped thereby detaching roll 9, being thus detached from the lap still held in the feed rolls; thence the detached tuft passes forwardly through the bite of the latter roll upon the lower detaching roll 13 and under the upper piecing or clearer roll 14;. The lower piecing roll 13 is driven by the piecing motion mechanism in the drive head (not shown) at the end of the machine, and may receive therefrom an intermittent or alternately forward and back motion which it imparts to the other rolls in the well understood manner. Thus the detached tuft is first drawn forward by the rolls and moved backwardly sufficiently to leave its uncombed tail end resting on the rear side of the roll 13 in a position to receive and be overlapped bythe head end of the next tuft detached and so on, thus piecing the successive tufts into a continuous sliver which passes out through the sliver pan 15, its trumpet 16, the calender rolls 17, onto the sliver apron 18. There are ordinarily some six or more combing heads in a single combing machine, all identical in structure and operation, so that there are thus a number of slivers delivered to the sliver apron 18. These are conducted along the latter to the draw box 19,by which they are all drafted together, whence they are discharged as a composite or single sliver into a sliver can at the end of the machine. The sliver from this can is thence taken to the draw frames for further drafting or direct to the roving and spinning frames where they may be spun in the usual manner, thus producing the improved semicombed yarn constituting the object and product of this invention.

Referring more particularly to Fig.` 1, it will be observed that the leather covered detaching roll 9 is placed closely adjacent to and immediately in front of the nipper knife 5, and that there is no usual top comb or other part or mechanism intervening between the said roll and the feed rolls 3, 4. This provides the unobstructed space or short detachment passage above referred to. Detachment of the tuft takes place in a straight line in this space between the bite of the feed rolls and the bite of the leathercovered roll upon the segment. This is indicated by the inclined dotted line. At the moment of detachment, the nipper knife is elevated, as shown by the full lines, and the tuft parts from the body of the lap in a clear stretch and just forward of the middle of the distance or passage between rolls,"

that is to say, slightly in advance of the lip of the movable nipper jaw.. The shortness of the said passage gives the detaching roll a long grip on the tuft, z'. c., toward the rear thereof, and causes the tuft to part with a clean break so that the forward and rear ends of each tuft produced are represented by substantially straight lines and hence overlap or piece one upon another with a superior regularity and uniformity, none of the fibers curling back as they enter the piecing rolls. In all prior machines the usual top-comb interposed between the knife and detaching roll has served to define the line on which the tuft parts from the body of the lap and also to determine the length of the fringe left on the latter to project from the nippers on the next nip. In the present machine, on the contrary, the straightness of the parting line and the length of the fringe are determined by the detaching roll, as just stated, the said parting line being thereby caused to be always suiiiciently in advance of the nipper knife to provide the requisite fringe. The position of the feed rolls, which controls the length of the detachment passage, is desirably set, about as indicated, so that the said rolls will work as close to the nipper knife as convenient. Setting them up closer than shown will simply enable the machine to work on shorter stock. The parting line will be then preserved in its same position. The piecing roll 13 is sufficiently remote from the path of the needle half-lap` to avoid contact thereof with the tail end of the tuft during the piecing, so that the said tail ends receive no combing whatever from this element, and, as above stated, pass through the machine receiving no treatment therefrom beyond the draft-straightening due to detachment.

The timing of the operation of the several elements is set so that the nippers open in the interval between the passage of the combing half-lap and before the detaching segment engages the tuft. At approxi- Wiliam .u

4tachment or the completion of mately the moment of engagement or immediately afterward, the feed rolls 3 and 4 may be operated to advance the lap. At the same time the rolls 13 and lll are rotating forwardly with a surface speed equal to that of the segment, but this motion is immediately reversed to present the tail ends .in position to be overlapped with the head ends of the next succeeding tuft. The nipper knife closes immediately following the dethe feed, in readiness to hold the next tuft in the path of the needles, whereupon the said cycle of steps is repeated.

I claim:

1. A cotton comber comprising a rotary comb cylinder, means for feeding a cotton lap toward the same and nippers holding the terminal fringe of the lap in contact with such rotary comb, in combination with a detaching roll disposed immediately in front of said nippers and close thereto and co-acting directly with the said feeding means to detach the combed fringe on a parting-line in advance of said nippers, and means for pieeing the successively Acombed and detached tufts to form continuous sliver thereof, the said organization being adapted Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner detaching members, the said roll coacting with the feeding means to detach the combed fringe on a parting line in advance of said nippers, and a piecing roll in Contact with the detaching roll adapted to form continuous sliver of the successive detaehments, the said organization being adapted to comb only the forward ends of the fibers of the cotton lap.

In testimony whereof, I have signed this specification in the presence of two witnesses.

esonera M. wnrrm.

Witnesses:

CHESTER C. LAMB, OSCAR L. OWEN.`

of Patents,

Washington, D. C. 

